The Glands Regulating Personality - Louis Berman, M.D.
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_Name Secretion Function_
1. Thyroid Thyroxin Gland of energy production
Controller of growth
of specialized organs
and tissues--brain
and sex
2. Pituitary-- Gland of energy consumption
and utilization--continued
effort
anterior Unknown Growth of skeleton and
supporting tissues
posterior Pituitrin Nerve cell and involuntary
muscle cell, brain and sex tone
3. Adrenals The Gland of Combat
cortex Unknown a. Brain growth--tone
development of
sex glands
medulla Adrenalin b. Energy for emergency
situations
4. Pineal Unknown a. Brain and sex development
b. Adolescence and puberty
c. Light and maturity
5. Thymus Unknown Gland of Childhood
6. Interstitial Testes in male Glands of secondary
glands of Ovaries in female Sex traits
7. Parathyroids Unknown a. Controllers of lime
metabolism
b. Excitability of
muscle and nerve
8. Pancreas Insuline Controller of sugar
metabolism
CHAPTER IV
THE GLANDS AS AN INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATE
Now in considering each gland of internal secretion as a separate
entity, and labelling it with certain properties and actions, we of
course commit the usual sin of the intellect: the sin of abstraction
and isolation of its material. This crime of analysis the intellect
commits every day in the search for truth. Before its dissection, it
seems to have to dip the elusive article in a fixative, and bottle it
in a vacuum.
Yet nothing in reality is more of a changing flux than the body in all
of its parts and tissues and organs. And of all these, the glands of
internal secretion stand out as the most susceptible to change. Made
to react to stimuli of offense and defense, instantaneously responsive
to situations involving energy exchanges and protective reflexes,
they are never for any minute the same or alone. They never function
separately. Each influences the other in a communicating chain. Let
one be disturbed, and all the others will feel the impact of the
disturbance and vibrate with it.
Any break in the somatic or psychic equilibrium, a blow or an
infection, or a startling thing seen, or a worrisome thought felt,
will start a process going. This will only wind up when every gland
has been somehow touched, and a final equilibrium reestablished. The
thyroid, maybe, was first excited, and then in turn the adrenals, with
a boomerang reinforcing effect upon the thyroid, and at the same time
a stimulating effect upon the pituitary. Each gland is thus influenced
and influencing, agent and reagent in the complex adjustments of the
organism.
ENDOCRINE CO-OPERATIONS
The body-mind is a perfect corporation. Not quite perfect, for
continually there arise little insurgencies, inadequacies and
frictions to which in time it will succumb. Yet, in the efficiency of
its co-operations, and in the co-ordination of the needs and supplies
of producer, middle man, and consumer, there is no one of the great
organizations of the captains of industry which can for a moment
approach it.
Of this corporation the glands of internal secretion are the
directors. But the huge corporation, not to topple over with its own
unwieldy size, must be composed of smaller units, each within itself
a corporation, and governed by a directorate. There are, in the
corporation-organism, different departments and bureaus, subdivisions
of function, which constitute the smaller corporations within the
larger corporation. These subsidiary companies have their own glands
of internal secretion as their directors.
Thus, the growth of the brain is presided over by the adrenal cortex,
the thyroid, the thymus and the pituitary. They determine the size of
the brain, the number of its cells, the complexity of its convolutions
and the speed of its chemistry, which means the speed of thought and
memory and imagination. As its directorate, therefore, they may be
entitled. The disturbance of one of them means the disturbance of all
of them, and a consequent deleterious effect upon the brain. Now take
the burning up of sugar in the organism, the great material source
of energy, which is controlled by the pancreas, the adrenals and
the liver, the thyroid and the pituitary. Together they form the
directorate of sugar metabolism. But, as is evident from a glance at
the membership of the growth directorate, and comparing it with the
directorate of sugar metabolism, there are some members who are
present on both boards. An infection, an illness, an ailment, an
exaltation or intoxication of such members will produce reverberations
in both directorates. A disturbance of sugar metabolism might then
cause a disturbance of growth. The advantages and disadvantages
are before us of having, in the glands of internal secretion, an
interlocking directorate, rulers over all the varied and manifold
activities of the organism.
Behind the body, and behind the mind is this board of governors.
Indeed, from the administrative and legislative points of view, the
body-mind may be said to be governed by the House of Glands. It is the
invisible committee behind the throne. Upon the throne is what? Man,
the most baffling of complexities. Man who is not a mind, but owns a
mind--Man who is not a body, but possesses a body, just as he might
have a motor car, a fortune or a calamity. Back of all his daily
activities, behind the life of body-mind is the mysterious unique
individuality, the Ego, the Psyche or the Soul. Lately, a competitor
with these ancient and honorable terms has come upon the scene as the
Subconscious. In that darkened No Man's Land is determined a man's
destiny. The endocrine association stands out as at least the most
important physical determinant of the states and processes of the
subconscious.
ANTAGONISMS AND CO-OPERATIONS
As within a corporation there are factions and cliques, influences
that always work together, and forces that are always pulling in
opposite directions, so within the interlocking directorate of the
ductless glands there are antagonisms and inhibitions, co-operations
and compensations. One gland will assist the action of another's
secretion with its own, or will in turn be stimulated to secrete by
it. Another will throw out its secretion in order to neutralize the
effects produced. Or its own activity will be depressed or completely
inhibited by it. Thus the pituitary arouses the interstitial glands
and vice versa, whereas the pancreas and the thyroid are mutually
inhibitory. Indeed, whole systems of glands may work in unison, or be
pitted against each other in certain situations, especially when
the organism is subjected to conflicting impulses with the clash
of opposing instincts, like fear and anger. In general there is
reciprocity and team work among the internal secretions.
A certain minimum amount of each must be present if life is to
continue along the normal lines. Whether there is to be an excess
of any one secretion above this minimum, or a deficiency below it,
decides the fate of the individual. If there is deficiency of one, the
other members of the directorate attempt to make up for what has been
lost, and to carry on its work by an extra effort, to substitute. Or,
released from the discipline of the deficient member, or the necessity
for antagonizing it, they may be released from its stimulus to
secrete, and produce less of their own specific secretion. A general
reaction all along the line will accompany overaction, oversecretion,
of one gland. Due to consequent stimulations and depressions of
other glands, some may be excited by the event to overwork--some to
assist--others, to act as antidote for--the excess secretion, while
still others, relieved of a burden, do not have to supply as much of
their quota under the circumstances and so shut down, or limit their
output.
It is important to get clearly in mind these subtle inter-reactions of
the different ductless glands. They may be antagonistic in their end
effects because of the opposed functions of the nerves or organs
stimulated. There are inhibitions and restraints produced when a gland
will send out its secretions to stop another gland secreting. There
are compensations resulting when because of insufficiency of a gland,
others will endeavour, by manufacturing more of their own secretion,
to compensate for the loss. There are mutual co-operations,
partnerships, when a gland will oversecrete to assist another, or in
response to another which is also oversecreting. There are losses
of balance, so that when one gland ceases secreting, another will
simultaneously or soon after. Normal secretion, oversecretion or
undersecretion are thus adjusted, but leave a train of after effects.
So with loss or insufficiency of the thyroid, there may be pituitary
overgrowth, because the pituitary may act as vicar for the thyroid.
The thyroid and thymus are antagonistic, for the thyroid hastens
differentiation, puberty and the coming of sexual maturity, while the
thymus delays and retards them and prolongs the period of childhood.
The thyroid and the pancreas are antagonists, for when the thyroid
has been excised, the pancreas appear no longer necessary to act as a
break upon the mechanism of sugar liberation into the blood from
the liver. The thyroid stimulates the interstitial glands, for
menstruation and pregnancy are impossible with no thyroid or an
insufficient thyroid. Removal of the pituitary makes the thymus shrink
because the restraining influence of the latter is no longer needed.
But there is an enlargement of the thyroid to compensate. In castrates
there is an increase in the size and number of the cells of the
anterior pituitary, again a compensation or substitution effect. The
pituitary and the adrenal cortex are mutually assistant, alike in
their influence upon the tone of the brain and sex cells.
THE KINETIC SYSTEM
So there are combinations of glands to assist or restrain others, or
to control a body function, or to determine the domination or abeyance
of an instinct. One such has been named the kinetic system because it
comes into play in situations which demand prompt adaptation without
hesitancy, and a consequent immediate transformation of static or
stored energy into kinetic or active energy. According to this
conception the brain, the adrenals, the liver, the thyroid and the
muscles together constitute a machine very much like an automobile.
The self-starter of the machine is the brain, with storage battery
(composed of stored past memories) and ignition combined. The thing
seen without, or the idea felt within, act as the initial sparks,
while the adrenals, as the carburetors, permit the freer flow of fuel,
sugar, from the liver. The thyroid works as the accelerator, the
original impulse finally landing upon muscles keyed up and supplied
with food to meet the situation, be it that of removing a poison,
removing an aggressor (attack) or removing the individual himself
(running away). When one is exhausted by exertion and emotion, injury,
intoxication or infection, it is these members of the kinetic system,
the brain, the adrenals, thyroid and liver, which are exhausted.
Exhaustion diminishes when the activity of the brain is diminished by
anesthetics, and cured when it is abolished by sleep.
If the adrenal gland may be called the Gland of Emergency energy, the
Kinetic System is entitled to the name of Council of Emergency Defense
for the organism. The Kinetic Drive is the name that has been given to
the whole system at work. It is one of the best examples we have of
inter-glandular co-operations and reactions in reply to the threat of
danger or the hint of pleasure.
THE CHECK AND DRIVE SYSTEM
Another instance of the complexity of these inter-glandular reactions
is furnished by the thyroid and the adrenals. The thyroid and the
adrenals are mutually stimulating--when the thyroid oversecretes, the
adrenal dittos, and vice versa. Yet they have directly opposed effects
upon the economy--because they act upon antagonistic portions of
the involuntary or vegetative nervous system, the system which is
independent of the will. Before proceeding further, it is worth while
sketching this division of the nervous system.
In the construction of a motor car from the point of view of absolute
control of it at every moment, the first thought of the mechanic is an
adequate _brake_ and an efficient _regulator_ of speed, instruments
antagonistic, but necessary to work simultaneously or alternately.
The involuntary or vegetative nervous system is built upon the same
principle. It supplies every organ in the body beyond the control of
the will (that is to say, the brain) with two sets of filaments which
have opposing functions. One group of filaments in general increases
or activates the function of the organ to which it is distributed. The
other group of filaments, when tingling, inhibits or prohibits that
function. They are like the two buttons on the wall which regulate
the supply of electricity to incandescent bulbs, one switching on the
current, the other switching it off. It has been agreed to call the
stimulative or activating portion the autonomic or drive system. To
its antagonist has been left the older name of the sympathetic or
check system. It is because they do not both act upon these two
components of the vegetative nervous system, but only upon one, that
the thyroid and adrenal though in themselves complementary, come to
exert opposite effects. For the internal secretion of the thyroid has
a selective affinity for the autonomic or activating system, while
that of the adrenals has a selective affinity for the sympathetic or
inhibiting system.
In the stomach, for instance, extracts of the adrenal glands have been
proved to intensify the function of the sympathetic or check system
in different degrees, so that there is a lessening of the amount and
acidity of the gastric fluid. On the other hand, thyroid extracts will
intensify the action of the autonomic or drive system, so that the
amount and acidity of the digestive juice is increased.
The stomach cell may, therefore, be regarded as a test-reagent for
the different internal secretions, as they affect the check and drive
systems.
These constitute an automatic device for regulating the activities of
every organ. Three factors enter into the mechanism. One is the amount
of the circulating internal secretions. Another is the organic and
functional integrity of the nerve filaments comprising the check and
drive systems. The third consists of the number and vitality and
limitations of the terminal receiving cells acted upon by the nerve
filaments, which in their turn have been acted upon by the internal
secretions. Upon every organ, including the mind, through the brain, a
stimulus from without or within will act according to its ability to
influence one or others of these factors.
Normally, the check and drive systems are properly balanced. But under
stress and strain the balance is upset. Indeed, the Kinetic Drive may
be defined as a mechanism contrived in the course of evolution as the
normal, healthy mode for meeting stress and strain. The Kinetic chain
of organs, brain, adrenals, liver, thyroid and muscles, began working
together in desperate situations for their possessor ages ago.
Successful in helping him to survive, they have survived as a
functional unit.
It was probably evolved in the Post-Tertiary Era, about twenty million
years ago, when the coming of the carnivores introduced direct
body-to-body conflicts, and their concomitants, a quick and versatile
nervous system. During the Tertiary epoch the earth basked in the heat
of a tropical sun nearly everywhere on its surface. The luxuriant
vegetation of the torrid zone flourished and swarmed, for the
temperature all over was what it is today at the equator. Gigantic
vegetarians were the animals, creatures like the dinosaurs, enormous,
gargoylean monsters, of an incredible size and strength, but clumsy
and grotesque, with small brains and little intelligence. For what
need was there for brain and intelligence when food lay about so
abundantly at hand for them to gorge themselves. As there was no
competition for food, there were no enemies.
Then as the earth evolved and grew cooler, vegetation failed, the
ancestors of the present carnivora appeared, the fathers of the
wolf and tiger, light, lithe and pugnacious, with senses acute and
ferocious weapons of attack, who set out to destroy everybody. They
destroyed pretty nearly all of the huge leaf-eating species, and only
the more plastic and smaller ones, who were more keen-sensed and
swift-footed (of whom the deer and antelope, horse and ox are the
descendants), escaped. The smallest either took to the air to become
the bat, or, like the forerunners of the squirrel and ape, took to the
trees.
It was the coming of the carnivores, therefore, that accelerated the
development of brain matter, and started the process which created
man. But in the millions and millions of years of conflicts, instincts
grew into being that sank deep into bone and marrow. The most
fundamental reflexes, those immediate responses to irritation or
danger, were laid down, and among them the drive and check system.
When the animal had decided to fight its enemy or was forced to fight,
or determined to prey, then was the time for the drive system to do
its utmost to speed up everything that would help in the fight, while
the check system came into play to hinder whatever would interfere or
burden in the fray. First the drive mechanism must have been hit upon,
and then the value of the check devices must have been found in fear
and flight, and especially in hiding and simulation of death, when
even breathing had to be inhibited. Until finally there developed, for
everyday use, a complete check and drive nerve machinery for every
organ, to be used according to the exigencies of the moment, with the
thyroid as the primary stimulant and controller of the drive system
and the adrenal as the primary dictator over the check system.
THE HARMONY OF THE HORMONES
All the glands, in fact, work in unison, with a distribution of the
balance of power that diplomatists might envy. In the co-ordinating
synchronism, the vegetative nervous system plays the part of an agent
that acts as well as is acted upon. The chemical interaction of the
internal secretions is not the only way in which they influence each
other. For, as the case of the thyroid and the adrenal so well shows,
secretions which, when directly interacting, are mutually reinforcing,
when affecting nerves, may become clashing opponents.
The Kinetic Chain is about as good a case as there is of the glands of
internal secretion co-operating. The Check and Drive systems, with the
adrenals and thyroid opposed, are one of the best instances of their
antagonisms. Besides, there are a number of other relationships
between them that might be cited. They all bear with more or less
pressure, positive or negative, upon the sex glands which will be
considered in its place. If one wished to consider all the glands in
their pro and anti relations, a separate volume would be required.
THE VEGETATIVE APPARATUS
The combination of the internal secretions and the vegetative system
has been spoken of as the vegetative or autonomic apparatus. The
vegetative apparatus is the oldest part of the nervous system.
And some acquaintance with its constitution is necessary to any
understanding of the possibilities of control of human nature.
For modern thought does not regard the brain as the organ of mind at
all, but as one unit of a complex synthesis, of which mind is the
product, and the vegetative apparatus is the major component. That
involves the blasting of the last current superstition of the
traditional psychology, the dogma that the brain is the exclusive seat
of mind.
That an animal is a vast concourse of cells is one of the accepted
fundamentals of biology. What is not so generally taken into
consideration is that the assemblage is formed by the agglutinations
of millions of years, and that it is hence composed of parts of
different ages and pedigrees, some exceedingly ancient and hoary, some
middle-aged, and some relatively new and recent. In the invertebrates,
who date further back in the history of the planet than any
vertebrate, the nervous system consists of discrete patches of nerve
cells, the ganglions composing the ganglionic system of which the
vegetative or autonomic nervous system of man is the direct descendant
and representative. The brain and central nervous system are
definitely later acquisitions, imposed upon the original stratum of
the check and drive machine.
The primitive chassis of the mechanism, so to speak, is the so-called
vegetative nervous system. Grouped with that system are the primeval
breathing, feeding and reproducing inventions, the viscera boxed up
in the chest and abdomen. The third partner is the glands of internal
secretion, which act upon the viscera both directly and indirectly
through the check and drive effect upon the vegetative nerves.
The glands are like tuning keys, by which certain strings in the
instrument may be tightened, so that its vibratory activity is
increased, or they may be loosened, the vibrations decreased, the
activity lessened. Tuning up the motors is a constant process in the
organism. Finally, there are the large nerve masses at the base of the
brain known as the basal ganglia, which contain the nerve centers for
the co-ordination of the other three. All these together constitute
the oldest family of the corporate organism. Beside them, the brain
and the face and the prehensile organs are mere parvenus.
THE OLDEST PART OF THE MIND
Granted, then, that this vegetative apparatus is the most deeply
rooted core of our being. What warrant is there for the grandiloquence
of the phrase: the Oldest part of the Mind? There is, indeed, room for
rhetoric, even poetry, here. For all the evidence points to it as the
rightful occupant of the throne upon which Shelley placed his Brownie
as the Soul of the Soul. Or to put it in another way, we think and
feel primarily with the vegetative apparatus, with our muscles,
especially the involuntary, with our viscera, and particularly with
our internal secretions. Whenever there is thought and feeling, there
is movement, commotion, precedent and concomitant, among these. They
are the oldest seats of feeling, thought and will and continue to
function as such.
Just what evidence is there for this conception? In the first place,
there is the fascinating story of the origin of vertebrates from
invertebrates of the sea scorpion or spider type. Then there is a
whole group of data which demonstrate that the primitive wishes which
make up the content of a baby consciousness are determined, settled by
states of relaxation or tension in different segments or areas of the
vegetative apparatus. According to this, the brain enters as only one
of the characters in the play of consciousness. It is just the organ
of awareness by the organism of itself as an integer which must adjust
itself to the specific condition within the disturbed vegetative
apparatus. Consequently the brain emerges not as the master tissue,
but as merely the servant of the vegetative apparatus.
Consciousness is a circuit. Swinging around in it are the
wish-feelings generated by the vegetative dynamo. From each viscus,
from the stomach and intestine, from the kidneys and bladder, from
the liver and spleen, from the blood-vessels, from all the glands
of external and internal secretion, there flow along the vegetative
nerves, to and from the brain, energies of various qualities and
intensities. All the members of the vegetative apparatus are more or
less active, and so all our wishes are all more or less active. All
our working hours we are aware of hunger, satiety or indifference, of
a desire to empty the intestine or bladder, or of a lack of necessity
of doing so, of a state of tranquillity of the blood-vessels and sweat
glands, or of a perturbation of them, of a varying tensity of even the
muscles that are, as we say, under the control of the will, of the
state, in fact, of all the elements of the vegetative complex. The
stream of feeling which constitutes the undertow of consciousness
originates outside of the brain altogether, and is composed of
currents arising from viscera, muscles, blood-vessels and glands.